September 3, 2007
Making Numbers Come Alive
It's often challenging to make numbers matter. "Bill Gates is worth more than $50 billion." "The Atlantic Ocean covers about 31 million square miles." Tough to visualize those numbers. And yet, as we communicate in behalf of our clients, it's so important to make the numbers come alive...best done, typically, by relating them to something else.
A great example was the recent opening of the Venetian Macao Resort. How big is it? "Three times the size of the largest casino in Las Vegas." It "has more floor space than four Empire State Buildings." Great descriptors. And so easy to remember. Bravo Venetian Macao Resort promoters!
The Importance of Empowering Customers
We read so much about empowering customers these days. Three examples that recently caught my eye related to philanthropy, museums, and automobiles.
The Case Foundation (started by AOL founder Steve Case and his wife Jean) is asking the public to help them decide how to award their grants. Individuals and small local nonprofit groups can submit ideas for improving communities, and a panel of judges will select the recipients.
This practice is being followed by an increasing number of foundations, including the Rockefeller Foundation which solicits ideas on its Website. What used to be a we-decide-who-gets-our-money business is gradually morphing into a collaborative endeavor. Reaching beyond one's own sphere is fast becoming the rule.
A recent analysis of the decline of symphony orchestra audiences combined with the boom in art museum attendance concludes that what makes the museums so popular is that visitors can customize their own experience. I notice this when I go to a museum. I typically have a specific purpose...to see one or two works or one specific exhibition. I notice that others have their own agendas as well. We all "have it our way." By contrast, go to a symphony concert and you're stuck listening to what they want you to hear, in the order and at the speed they want you to hear it.
Finally, an online campaign for GM cars is customized to provide each recipient an ad that emphasizes what that recipient is most likely to respond to, based upon the recipient's Web habits. Creepy? A little, I think. But kind of fascinating as well.
A Wonderful Quote in Honor of Our Friend Henry Romaine Who Lived It
"Use all your senses, all the time...Take pains with the work; do it carefully. Relish the details. Enjoy your hunger. And remember why you're there." - Julia Child
posted by David Rawle @ 2:53 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Mr. Rawle,
Over the last month or so, I have been reading your blogs. I find them fascinating. Today, I especially enjoyed reading the case study on cultural experiences and in my opinion, the non-shared experience and wanting it our "own" way is part of the problem with our culture. Collaboration is the key to great ideas, inventions and breakthroughs. Live, performance art is just that--a collaboration between the performers, the audience, the set designers, technicians, etc. We have to wait for the big pay off and experience it as we go, together. It is no quick fix and maybe, not exactly what we want. We feel obligated to sit and wait it out. We feel the rewards, or disapointments and experience other's emotions as well. Apply that to life, business, etc.
I have just moved to Charleston and have spent the last 7 years in Dallas, working in various non-profits, media and start-up companies focusing on comunication/ writing/ pr/ events.
I would love to talk to you about your company and what type of place I may have in it. I have always felt it is best to surround ourselves with people we admire and aspire to be, in order to further ourselves and the world.
My email address is beccafinley@mail.com and my phone number is 214-417-1225. If you would like to peruse my current project, please visit www.bayoulogic.com
I look forward to hearing/ reading more of your views.
Sincerely, Becca Finley
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